About the Museum
The Museum of Hoaxes is dedicated to promoting knowledge about hoaxes. (Click here for opening hours, etc.) On our blog we post about dubious- sounding claims, and whatever else strikes our fancy. The site is also home to the Hoaxipedia (the museum's online encyclopedia of hoaxes), the Hoax Forum, and the Top 100 April Fools' Day Hoaxes.

The museum was created in 1997 by Alex Boese. He's assisted by a staff of deputy curators and docents. Alex is the author of three books, most recently Elephants on Acid: And Other Bizarre Experiments (which has nothing to do with hoaxes). Check out the list of the Top 20 Most Bizarre Experiments of All Time for a preview.

Web Hoax Museum

It means we're being watched.

So what have you guys been up to that you wouldn't want Dusty, or the man or whoever, to know about??? Actually back to the question, upon seeing that movie this past weekend the exact same question came to mind. I remember the whole Esquire thing quite well and was wondering if it would come up here... unfortunately I have nothing to add on the subject. Just knew you guys would catch it and probably discuss...

Holy Moley. Alex gave out Cranky Media Guy's real name. Is this a trend? Who's next? Will The Council be alerted? Will it come to the attention of... "Raoul"? Tell me. I must know.

As the eldest of my parents four children, all boys, I must ask that you stop making comments about my baby sister Allegra. By the way, there's a over-the-counter medicine named Allegra, I wonder if there's a connection there?

Hairy Houdini said:

"Holy Moley. Alex gave out Cranky Media Guy's real name. Is this a trend? Who's next? Will The Council be alerted? Will it come to the attention of... "Raoul"? Tell me. I must know."

Sheesh, would Alex give out my REAL name? Duh, of course not! My REAL name is Jeff Gannon! Oops, I shouldn't have said that, should I?

Christopher... that's actually the first thing I thought of... maybe it's a product tie-in causing the name...

Names in movies are trendy. Allegra is trendy. Isn't it also the name of a character of a kid's show? Allegra's house, or Allegra's room...something like that. Cole seems normal, without making anyone think about it. Christopher, if you are the oldest of your parents children, ALL boys...how do you have a baby sis?? And...I don't really get the connection here. It's not the actress' name. It's the character's name. If it were an homage to the 'fake' actress a few years ago, wouldn't they just have called her Allegra Coleman?

Calling the character Allegra Coleman would be too obvious a reference. Calling her Allegra Cole is more subtle. But I'm guessing that the scriptwriter just thought it was a cool sounding name.

...I'm stuck on this "too obvious" thing. Mostly, b/c I was...maybe 12 when this would have been in Esquire. Did people make a really big deal about this? Or was it just Esquire readers?? There are things that happened when I was 12 that I DO remember...but this isn't one of them. Was I just an oblivious naive kid? How big was this thing?!? P.S. I'm not even sure who Esquire's target audience is, but I can guess...so chances are I wouldn't even have noticed this if it was right on the top rack in the grocery store.

The Allegra Coleman thing wasn't a big deal at all. Most people have never heard of it. But Hollywood insiders would likely know about it since it was a joke about how Hollywood manufactures celebrities. Therefore, it seems unlikely that a presumably Hollywood-savvy writer could have written a script including a character named 'Allegra Cole' just by accident.

Maegan, think about it. Putting it the way I did should have tipped you off that I was making a joke. I flaunt the fact that my sense of humor is bad, but most people get my jokes - especially when they are as obvious as that one was.

Alex said:

"The Allegra Coleman thing wasn't a big deal at all. Most people have never heard of it. But Hollywood insiders would likely know about it since it was a joke about how Hollywood manufactures celebrities. Therefore, it seems unlikely that a presumably Hollywood-savvy writer could have written a script including a character named 'Allegra Cole' just by accident."

Alex is right. The Esquire thing was cute, but it wasn't a big deal. It's probably just us hoax-types who remember it.

I don't know if "Hollywood insiders" in general would know about it, but it seems as if the scriptwriter did. The name's just too close. I mean, it isn't impossible that it's a coincidence or that the writer sort of half-remembered the name without realizing where it came from, but it seems to me that it's probably a deliberate reference. Why he didn't just use "Coleman" as the last name I have no idea.

Okay, I think I have the whole Allegra Cole/Allegra Coleman thing worked out. It turns out that the screenwriter, Kevin Bisch, used to be a magazine writer in New York City. Check out this article about him:
http://www.wga.org/craft/interviews/bisch.html

He moved to New York and became a magazine writer in 1996, just when the Allegra Coleman hoax happened. But in 2000 he took a serious look at where he was going in life and realized that the magazine he was writing for was "not Esquire and I may not be Tom Wolfe."

So he quit his job and wrote the Hitch screenplay, and while he may not have been working for Esquire, he was able to slip an allusion to Esquire into the script. In other words, the use of that name is just a sly reference to his roots in the New York magazine industry.

Alex said:

"So he quit his job and wrote the Hitch screenplay, and while he may not have been working for Esquire, he was able to slip an allusion to Esquire into the script. In other words, the use of that name is just a sly reference to his roots in the New York magazine industry."

Nice detective work there, Alex. Yeah, it sounds as if this guy kind of pines for the glory days at Esquire. It was a pretty big deal, magazine-wise, back in the late 60's-early 70's. Lots of attention-getting and/or controversial covers, including one with the infamous Lt. Calley holding a Vietnamese kid. The days of glory at Esquire are WAY behind it now, however.

Alex, you're not saying the Dusty girl is fictitious, are you?
Keep this up and she'll never earn enough to buy herself some jeans.

Big Gary C said:

"Alex, you're not saying the Dusty girl is fictitious, are you?
Keep this up and she'll never earn enough to buy herself some jeans."

God, we wouldn't want THAT, would we? The poor girl is obviously poverty-stricken. I mean, just LOOK how she's bursting out of that hand-me-down T-shirt she's forced to wear!

Christopher, your joke doesn't make sense because it isn't funny. I had to assume it was an OBVIOUS play on the topic, b/c 1: YOUR name being Christopher Cole wouldn't make you related to Allegra Cole, she's a character...not a real person. 2: you were in a family of all boys. I did 'get' that you couldn't be serious...but to be FUNNY, it would need to make obvious sense. Sorry it seemed so damn obtuse! P.S. I wish I could portray disdain simply by typing.

So is Maegan the humor police for the world or just MOH? Granted the joke was bad, he even stated his sense of humor blows, but it was a joke (obvious to most) that you didn't get before you posted (I'm guessing) We all know that humor and the sense of varies WIDELY... wouldn't you agree to that Meg? Give him a break... he cracked a joke you didn't like (or get?) but you don't have to get SO upset about it all.

PS - I think you can portray disdain by simply typing... try d-i-s-d-a-i-n. Of course, that's probably not funny either...

...Sorry. I only realized later how harshly I'd judged. Can I blame it on antibiotics??

I am quite used to bad reviews of my alleged sense of humor. When I was on active duty many years ago I engaged in a bad joke compition with another guy in my shop. I quit when I discovered he was cheating, his wife and kids were sending him jokes to use. It was 1 against 6 if I remember correctly. My philosophy on jokes is: if you tell a good joke good, everyone laughs; if you tell a good joke bad, everyone still laughs although maybe not as much; if you tell a bad joke bad, everyone groans; if you tell a bad joke good, everyone groans but laughs as well. I meet with a group of my friends every week and I have yet to get them to throw things at me.